Welcome to the Outreach Youth Worker’s latest round-up looking back over the month of February.

WARNING: Youth Worker “on the Edge”! – From time to time youth workers need to re-sharpen their skills and focus again on those things that are important to what we do. On 28th of February I attended a diocesan hosted training day called “Youth Work on the Edge”. In short it was a day focussing on reaching out to young people in our post-modern world, what tools/bridges we can use to do this effectively and what ‘model of church’ we might ultimately invite young people to ‘join in with’. It was a challenging and inspiring day on which I am continuing to reflect – and while there are things that I both agreed and disagreed with I was reinvigorated to share the spiritual journey of young people both within and without the parish. If you would like to join me on this reflective ‘odyssey’ I have a few questions that I hope might get you thinking more deeply:
• What spiritual needs do you think young people have (in our church)?
• What do you think might help young people to connect with God more deeply – or even at all?
• Is our church a place where a young person can address deep questions? If yes/no, why?
• Is Church relevant to young people today?
• Is Jesus relevant to young people today?
I’ve tried not to impose my own values on the questions I’ve asked, and I’m not saying I have the answers. If you would like to feed your thoughts back to me I’d be glad to hear them. You might even want to ask a young person! Feel free to leave you comments below.

ALTITUDE – Every year I help to run a youth holiday called Altitude – a summer break for 13-17 year olds in Dove Dale. At the beginning of February I went on the annual leaders training day in preparation for this event. If you, or anyone you know, might be interested in this holiday I can wholeheartedly recommend it: more information and application forms can be got from me at the parish office. Details can also be found at the back of church.

Advisory Group – For those who don’t know, there is a quarterly group that advises me on youth work matters within the parish – and it is made up of parishioners from St Francis. While they are there to support the youth worker, they also need support themselves in the important role they play. Please do pray for these four people and for God’s wisdom and guidance.

‘Bolt and Bowling’ – In February our two groups, FAITH and FAITHFUL, got out of the centre and had some old fashioned social time together. FAITH went to see ‘Bolt’, the new animated Disney film starring John Travolta about a dog who thinks he has super powers, and FAITHFUL went to the Lakeside bowling alley. Look out for further social events in the very near future.

Paul.

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It’s great to see so much going on for the younger people, any chance of me slipping in and joining you?
I’m 15 in my head, but 50 in my body, do you think anyone would notice?!?
What about inviting a few of us ‘oldies’ along to your groups sometimes? We could learn from each other, after all we do belong to the same family! The Church family’!